Year after Sandy, Long Beach resident still fighting with insurance companies to rebuild

Share this:

This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

Anna Ervolina and her family have called Long Beach home for nine years — that is until Sandy came and washed everything away.

Ervolina says her home was completely destroyed by five feet of sewer, salt and bay water which rushed through her one floor home.

“I wanna go home. We need the money,” Ervolina says. “I have about 49 houses on my block…only 10 people are living there.”

Fighting back tears, Ervolina says her story is shared by her entire community. “These aren’t careless homeowners, we had insurance. I had three different insurance policies on my house,” she says.

The family received $100,000 from their insurance company but that amounts to less than half of what they estimate would be needed to demolish the structure, clear the site, build a new foundation and raise a sturdy house in its place.

Ervolina says that because her family “makes too much money,” they do not qualify for certain allowances. She says she and her neighbors are constantly facing roadblocks from FEMA and insurance companies. Despite rhetoric from elected officials, Ervolina says her situation has become more desperate.